Mobile devices have become ubiquitous. Such devices are very compact and have very limited resources. Because of their popularity and wide-spread use, mobile devices have recently become a target for malicious attacks much as computers have in the past. However, the traditional ways of protecting devices from attacks using client-based scanners put a strain on the resources of mobile devices. For example, processing events and files using a client-based application utilizes a substantial amount of CPU resources, which in turn drains the battery. Mobile devices often do not have processors that are as powerful as processors found in laptops and desktop computers. Besides the strain placed on processors and batteries, storage is another concern. A client-based application stores the signatures for malicious events and files. The signatures require a significant amount of storage capacity. However, mobile devices typically have limited storage capacity thereby presenting a problem for a client-based solution. In addition, the data needed to scan for attacks may be downloaded to the device. Mobile devices normally communicate using a wireless connection, such as a cellular network connection or a Wi-Fi connection. While bandwidth continues to increase for downloading data using such connections, wired connections are much faster. Thus, downloading the data needed to scan for attacks would be very slow and inefficient, and would also place further load on the battery.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system, method, and device for cloud-based content inspection for mobile devices.